


Never Going Home

by Vampykitty_kun



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: Behind the Scenes, Canon Compliant, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Dick Grayson is Batman, Gen, Vigilantism, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 22:12:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3092783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampykitty_kun/pseuds/Vampykitty_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason knew he had sealed his fate the moment he had slid through that window to save her.</p>
<p>He wondered if that had been what Bruce had felt with Dick- with him…</p>
<p>He had never actually expected to end up with a partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place just after Red Hood rescues Sasha early in Batman and Robin and continues on out.

“Thank you… for saving me…”

The quiet voice to his right suddenly broke the silence, and he would have been lying had he said he hadn’t flinched, though he _had_ resisted jerking the steering wheel in the same motion. He swallowed thickly in response, pressing his lips into a thin line as his grip on the split leather wheel tightened.

“I-I’m not sure _why_ you did, but… thanks, all the same…” She murmured again, dragging her knees up flesh against her chest, hugging them with trembling arms.

His eyes flickered back and forth between her huddled form and the road several times over before he gave a shaky sigh.

“You… cold?” He asked hesitantly, his nerves getting the best of him at the worst of times as he fought back the growing nausea in the pit of is stomach.

It was already too late to avoid this…

She met his gaze briefly, before _he_ broke it, and the girl let her eyes fall to the seat.

“ _I’m sorry…_ ”

Her voice had only been a whisper, and he cursed, stopping the vehicle abruptly in the middle of the empty road. The jerk of the action made her squeak in fright, and Jason pressed his forehead to the steering wheel in distress.

“No. _No_. You shouldn’t be- I… don’t you _ever_ be sorry about somethin’ like that…” He muttered, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his sweat slickened bangs.

He reached far back behind his seat and rummaged, pulling forward the thick black cape he had discarded earlier, before draping it across the girl and tucking the edges in around her shoulders.

“It’s…insulated. Should keep the bite of the cold out. Stolen cars don’t come with a summary of features. Heater’s fried. Can’t help that…”

She shivered slightly and wrapped the stiff fabric tighter around her as she buried her face in her knees.

His throat grew tight against his will as he watched and it was almost unconsciously that he slid his hand into his pocket to retrieve the crumpled pack of cigarettes and worn lighter. He placed a stick between his lips, and his hand quivered as he flicked the lighter open and lit it, taking in a deep drag that left him breathless. His eyes slid closed as he released his lungs in a cloud of smoke.

His nausea didn’t wane.

This was not something he could handle, not something he could fix with the pull of a trigger, or thick wad of cash. He was being stupid, so stupid…

What had he been thinking? What had he seriously planned to do with the girl? It wasn’t as though it was something as simple as just dropping her off somewhere, not after she had just killed her father, and surely not in the physical or mental state she was in. Where would she go?

Absolutely nowhere, and he _knew_ that… she would end up on the streets, drugged up, out of her mind, standing on street corners, or _worse_. That thought alone had the bile climbing higher up his throat and he sucked in a sharp breath in attempt to quell the feeling.

The whole situation was hitting far too close to home.

He felt her eyes on him, boring into his side as he puffed on the filter, knee bouncing with his anxiety. He slid his foot back onto the accelerator, coaxing the car to continue its path down the street, if only to avoid having to look at her again.

He…he wasn’t _Bruce_. He shouldn’t be taking in orphans. He didn’t _want_ that. He was _not_ stable enough to deal with that kind of shit, _especially_ now… not good enough to not fuck things up- to not screw her up even more than she already was after tonight. That wasn’t him.

Yet… at the same time? He knew he had sealed his fate the moment he had slid through that window to save her. They would have locked her up in a psych ward, if of course they hadn’t killed her first, something that had seemed highly likely at the time. He had seen her terrified yet determined face, had watched the tears rolling down her cheeks as she hadn’t backed down, even as she had stared down the gun barrels pointed at her head.

He had laid eyes on her and had immediately felt the surging need of possession. He was fucking lonely as hell, and he had wanted her before his mind had had the time to really think about it, about the consequences of his actions… She was angry, traumatized, alone- and being all of the above himself he had felt that sudden need to protect her and whisk her away into the night.

He wondered if that had been what Bruce had felt with Dick- with _him_ …

And that thought alone had him quenching the snarl threatening to break free.

It also made up his mind, made him realize that he didn’t need to be the hero here, that it didn’t have to be up to him.

Dick hadn’t had a choice.

But Jason? He had, and he had run with it, willing to follow Bruce to the ends of the Earth.

He brought the car to a halt for a second time, much slower than before, and slid it into park. He tossed his smoke out the window and ran a hand through his hair again, brushing it out of his face before he turned to her with a neutral expression that had been difficult to force.

“Look kid- eh, what _is_ you name anyway?”

“S-Sasha sir…”

“ ‘kay, look Sasha… you _don’t_ have to feel like you owe me or some shit just because I saved your life and got you the hell out of there in one piece. The fact is, I’m a piece of shit… a _murderer_. I kill people every goddamn day, and while _most_ of them are scumbags, sometimes innocent people get caught in the crossfire. I’m _not_ a good person, regardless of what I might have looked like to you tonight, and you _need_ to understand that.”

“I-“

He cut her off before she could get anywhere.

“Not done yet… You have a _choice_ Sasha. Just because I saved you doesn’t mean I own you. No one does and don’t you ever let anyone make you think they do. If you want- well, you can _leave_. Get the hell out of dodge. Leave this hell hole and never look back. I can set up an account to help you get by and you can be your own woman and disappear into the wood work.”

“…But?”

“I won’t _make_ you. It’s your decision. Gotham has a way of stealing your soul, I’m not the first to be knocked down then rise up seeking vengeance, nor will I be the last. If you want to stay you can. I wasn’t lying when I said I was looking for a partner, even though I _should_ have bit my tongue and kept my damn mouth shut, because I knew so well what this city and the scum that call it home can do to kids that take on a mission. But… I also know what it’s like to _be_ that kid. I can train you, make you something more than you are, and you can help me rid the city of the _diseases_ infecting it. You’d always have a roof over your head, even if not the swankiest, there would always be food on your plate, and you would _never_ be left to the mercy of some asshole. I’d never hurt you, but I can’t promise that I’ll be the best of company, because I won’t. Too many issues that will never get worked through.”

And to his surprise, she only smiled, a soft genuine curl of the lips that showed true in her eyes.

“Well… no one’s perfect.”


	2. Chapter 2

After abandoning the stolen car six streets away and leading the cape bundled teenaged girl up a fire escape and across rooftops they finally arrived at the building he was currently calling _home_. The security set up was shoddy as best and he took care of it quickly making a mental note to up its game ASAP with his ‘new arrival’.

He deposited her on the threadbare couch before tossing his gear unceremoniously into a chair as he stripped the majority of it from his person. He ran a hand through the bangs plastered against his forehead and pushed them back up out of his view before exiting into the next room.

He was at a total loss with what to do next.

He hadn’t planned for this, not at all… it had been a mistake asking the _Replacement_ to join him so many weeks ago, a malicious _joke_ when he had asked Dick the very same thing later that night. He had been _lonely_ , but had known the outcome before ever bringing up the subject- had used it as an _excuse_ to unleash his pent up rage and anguish…

He had never _actually_ expected to end up with a partner- to find his own type of Batgirl.

He side stepped into the bathroom, splashed some cold water on his face, and noted that he would have to fix the lock on the door there as well now while he tried to get a hold of himself.

He rummaged through his things, dumping bags of clean but rumpled clothes onto his mattress, hoping to find something- _anything_ that might fit the lean girl, ultimately settling on an old t-shirt he hoped she wouldn’t be falling out of and a pair of shorts that she could at the very least synch tight enough with the drawstring to stay up on her hips.

When he stepped back through the doorway into the living room the sharp intake of breath from her direction had him pausing to regard her curiously. It was only then that he remembered that he had discarded the domino he had worn beneath the dome and this was the first she was seeing of his entire face.

“Yeah, the sight of me in the mirror terrifies me on a daily basis as well.” He snorted, and to his surprised she genuinely seemed distressed at that and flailed her hands before her.

“No! That’s not… I- it’s just that, you’re actually pretty _normal_ … handsome even. Wasn’t expecting that…” she felt the heat rise to her cheeks beneath the dollotron and averted her gaze as she bit an already very swollen lip.

He frowned, _flattered_ , but not at all pleased.

“Stop there. Don’t get any ideas. Not interested- _never will be_ , so don’t be expecting anything like that from me.” He sighed, rubbing at a temple in distress. “I’ve been there. It’s easy to fall for the Knight in shining _black_ armor that swoops in, saves you, and turns your life upside-down. It only ends in heartbreak.”

“I wasn’t-“

“That’s _good_.” He answered truthfully- _relieved_. “Don’t ever let it get there kid. I’m a mess, you’re not my type, and I don’t need you pining… again, been there, done that, and it’s _shit_. Best I can do is support you, mentor you, and maybe get on a brotherly sort of level with you over time if this doesn’t crash and burn horribly- and it _probably will_.” He groaned, tossing himself into the torn arm chair across from her.

“You’ve had a stressful life, haven’t you Mister Hood?” She murmured, tilting her head to the side, and he cursed himself internally for the hundredth time for bringing such a previously innocent girl into his world.

“You haven’t the slightest idea Sash… and I’m not getting into the gory details, not now, maybe even never. It’s Jason by the way. I’m Hood in the field, not at home, and I sure ain’t no ‘Mister’.”

Despite the awkward tone of the conversation, the horrendous things that had happened to her in the past twenty-four hours, and the pain her face must have been experiencing, she managed a small smile.

“Noted… _Jason_.”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

He did not sleep that night.

Couldn’t.

Not while he could hear the girl breathing softly across the room and he was forced to cope with the fact that he had actually brought her in… that he was now responsible for her well-being, and like Bruce he would ultimately be putting her in danger.

He was repeating a vicious cycle.

It made him no better…

Instead of resting he resolved himself to chain-smoking his way through a pack of cigarettes curled up in the armchair as he watched her.

By some small miracle Sasha did not seem to have the same holdups as he, and despite having had the worst day of her life- _thus far_ , she was fast asleep, wrapped in a bundle of blankets on the mattress tucked into the corner.

There were too many question and concerns running through his head.

He still knew nothing about the kid, sans what had directly led up to their meeting, and it would be important to learn as much as he could about her when she was in a better mindset to talk. Her father was dead- mutilated by Pyg, and put out of his misery by Sasha herself, but the mother? Was she out of the picture completely? And what exactly had put the man and his daughter on the freak’s hit list to begin with?

He needed to find out, needed to know what he was in for, and what he was working with.

He would have to switch safe houses ahead of schedule, move to one of his larger bases, well furnished, with heat, better supplies, and a proper kitchen. He couldn’t make any sort of life for her in a sparse apartment that had seen better days. But setting up one of his more equipped locations to house two individuals and give her own space would take a day or two.

He groaned and rubbed at his eyes.

She would need training- _lots_ of it, she was inexperienced, naïve, and fragile. He would change that. He would teach her to protect herself and then some. With any luck, after her display earlier, she would be a natural and he could rest easier.


End file.
